With 70 percent of consumers saying trusting a brand is more important than in the past, marketers are increasingly seeking earned media mentions, which research shows helps gain consumer trust. Earned media, namely media that marketers haven’t paid for and don’t own, comes in many forms, including organic influencer tags, op-eds, interviews, news segments, documentaries, and the like.
Using Ayzenberg’s Social Index and Earned Media Value Index (a.EMVI), over 3,000 companies worldwide have measured the dollar value of their social media actions and endorsements that comprise modern earned media. The company recently debuted the latest iteration of its Social Index, SI 3.0, with four new updates exclusive to members, including an updated algorithm, a dashboard and EMV visualizer, global EMV for key markets and daily EMV updates.
First up, SI 3.0 boasts a new EMV engine and algorithm for improved accuracy. The Index’s API—built on decades of media buying, analytics reporting for Fortune 500 companies, third-party research and Ayzenberg’s Orchestra Tech platform—provide marketers with more precise vertical values, which enhance the value proposition to their customers.
Next, a new dashboard and EMV visualizer, the latter which is in beta, will allow analysts, media planners and integrated marketers to select a date range all the way back to January 2020 to understand how a specific key performance indicator (KPI) performed on a specific platform and location.
This time-bound visualization, helpful for enhancing postmortems, is available for seven top social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitter. Last November, Ayzenberg introduced TikTok values to its Social Index.
SI 3.0 also now offers global values across key markets including NA, EMEA and APAC countries. With these expanded regions and the program’s EMV visualizer, marketers can choose any two locations and compare the difference between the areas for the same industry platform and KPI.
Lastly, marketers can keep an eye on the EMV of their influencer, content marketing, PR, and organic and paid social media campaigns with a.EMVI’s new daily EMV updates. A snapshot of the day’s Index is dynamic and updated on the fly, according to Vincent Juarez, Ayzenberg CMO and a.EMVI author.
The variables used to calculate EMV are nuanced, which makes it more difficult to accurately quantify than paid and owned media. But it’s critical to do so given earned media’s growing impact on the bottom line. For example, an Edelman survey found that 44 percent of consumers were influenced by positive press to choose a brand. And Yale researchers concluded that op-eds are a cost effective way to influence people’s views, finding that an op-ed costs from about 50 cents to $3 per mind changed.
Influencers are particularly useful for driving earned media and influencing consumer buying behavior. According to a new GRIN report, over half of consumers said that general, word-of-mouth and social media are their preferred mediums for discovering new brands. What’s more, about 80 percent told GRIN that social media directly impacts their purchasing decisions and 35 percent have confirmed that they were “very” or “extremely likely” to purchase influencer-endorsed products online.
SI 3.0 offers two subscription plans, a monthly $600 plan and an annual $6,000 plan. Click here for more information.
If you’re interested in seeing how your social campaigns stack up, a.network developed the Social Index tool with the goal of becoming the industry standard for measuring earned media value (EMV) and campaign ROI.
Social Index 3.0 leverages a combination of expert analysis, machine learning algorithms and vast amounts of proprietary and public data. The index helps brands and agencies take engagement and earned media ROI measurement to the next level.